I returned from the Galapagos two weeks ago. First outing for the Subal and D2X.

There is much to like about the Subal housing, but there are a few things I didn't care for. These include:

1) The GS viewfinder. An expensive option, but incredibly frustrating. Even with a low profile mask, the image circle of the viewfinder only covers the entire rectangle of the camera viewfinder if your eyeball is dead nuts in the center. Anything other than perfect position yields a blurry section in your view. Quite frustrating. I wonder if it's the same with Seacam or if others have the same issue.

2) Handles. The two most expensive housings on earth are designed exquisitely, built to great precision and have god-awful handles. If not for the velcro strap, it would have been really irritating.

3) The MSC switch can be bumped quite easily. It can be pulled out to disengage, but it can also be easily bumped back and then switched. Then you must pull your glove off to pull it back out.

4) The neoprene cover for the dome port is pathetic. For whatever it cost, it isn't worth it. It velcros to the back of the port with two thin pieces of velcro, i.e. two small tabs. Get real. I wonder if a Seacam version would fit it?

5) The teeth on the zoom gear are much smaller than the Aquatica, therefore harder to mesh together when setup. This is offset by the wonderul design of the AF-MF lever than disengages the gears for easy insertion of camera and/or lens.

The housing held up nicely to a 4 foot fall off the camera table, although the dome shade is history.

I'm ambivalent about the front/rear command dial controls. With my Aquatica, spinning the front dial was a piece of cake, but you absolutely couldn't reach the rear dial with your right hand on the handle. For me, the Subal required me to stretch to reach either dial, but it was possible. It's probably easier for a long fingered person.

But, back to my original post title; Does anyone else have the GS viewfinder and what do they think?

The Seacam S180 is not like that. You can see into it from an angle and also from pretty far back.

Cheers
James

I haven't got to dive this housing, so my comments are somewhat generic to the line, though I've got a lot of time in the water w/ the d70 and d100 housings.

1-
Much like shouldering a rifle w/ your eye in the center of the scope, placing your eye to the center viewfinder will become instinctive through practice. I have had some issues with the housing in the sand, shooting macro, making it difficult to get my head low enough, but in my experience w/ your camera's smaller viewfinder little brothers, the benefits far outweigh the annoyance.

2- Try ULCS AC-H handles attached via TR-SC brackets. My guess is that by placing these handles closer to the housing body, you'll also alleviate your command dial complaints.

3- I haven't had that complaint, do you shoot C or S in AF?

4- We have a custom dome cover made that fits over the scallops in the dome & is less expensive than the Subal alternative.

The issue I have with the MSC switch is that it switches my camera from C to S when I slide the camera back out of the housing to download (unless i remember to disengage the switch first). Then I end up jumping in on S - which is rubbish (IMO). In fact I have turned off focus priority in S AF on my camera's custom settings in case this happens!

I have liked the GS viewfinder every time i have used it - you have to use the rubber bit to help keep your eye lined up. But I still haven't bought one for my D2X - so I guess I don't love it that much!

Alex

Exactly, but it is annoying since sometimes you have little time from spotting the critter to firing.



I'm not clear on this statement. I can't compare the GS to the D2X w/o the GS. I've gone from N90 to D100 to D2X/GS. There was a definite difference from N90/F100 to D100. Is the D2X/no GS viewfinder much bigger than the D100?



S, I think C is rubbish It's pretty easy for the switch to get bumped from camera to boat. It's on the side rather than in front, somewhat protected by the dome. After it happened the first time, I disengaged it. All it takes is a bump to reengage it, and in the wrong position and get out of S. So then I had to take glove off, dis-engage switch, realign, re-engage and switch back to S, put glove back on. All while clinging to a rock in 4 knot current.

The other comment I had was that the D2X really locked focus a fired despite having nothing in focus. This is the same exact trip and same kind of shooting I did with the D100, but over half my D2X were out of focus. We're talking about 30 hammerheads in one scene and the whole thing is massive blurry, five shots in a row. By the end of the trip my routine was to lock focus, let go, half depress again and fire. The success rate was much higher.



You would think for the price I wouldn't need 3rd party replacements.



What rubber bit?

The bit you screw onto the back of the viewfinder:



Alex

I never used a D100, but the D2x with no GS viewfinder to me looks about the same as the F100 on the Sea&Sea housing (ok, maybe just a hair smaller if you measure it).

Sadly I'm not among the D2Xers, but I can agree on Subal's dome port cover. What is it with that little Velcro-e thing?

Seaoptics have a cracker purpose-made one which offers significantly more protection - and can ever double as a tea cozy.

I didn't get one of those. My god, with it attached my arms might not be long enough to hold the camera out that far.

Dave, where's my rubber bit?

The view from the G5 view finder may look at little distorted but I found it works really well. Unlike my old D100 and even my F100 before that I found almost all the shots were properly framed. Very few cut off images; very easy to fill the whole frame and nothing more. So though it is a little weird to look through I would have to say the viewfinder is great. Of course I'm left handed and left eye dominant so all regular cameras and viewfinders suck in my opinion.

I don't get the complaint with the handles and command dials. They work fine for me. Maybe you need bigger hands.

As far as the focus. Once I used the custom menu to have the AE lock button operate the autofocus I've had few complaints. See my Sea Lion photos. Nothing is harder to shoot than them at speed.
I focus with the back lever and then fire the shutter when ready.

I would agree with the complaint about the MSC switch.

I'm use to how the controls work on a Subal housing so I think this housing is very well laid out. I would suspect that you just need to shoot it a lot.

How to use the back lever for autofocus:

Go to custom setting menu, then go to c for Timers/AE&AF lock, then go to C2, then scroll down to the bottom. This will let you set the AE-L/AF-L button to Autofocus on. Then you can use the back lever to operate your autofocus. Set your autofocus to C and the shutter will fire when push it. Just remember you always have to focus before you shoot.

Dave

I'm surprised to hear you don't like the viewfinder. I spent a week diving without it and had real problems seeing the complete frame and had many badly composed images that looked fine when shot. That problem went away with the addition of the viewfinder.
My rubber cup on the viewfinder was lost sometime ago and I've been shooting without it and truly loving the results. What I see is what I get. Maybe there's just some differences in our tecnique. Not sure.

As Ryan suggested, try the ULCS handles. These handles are adjustable in or out to get the best position for your fingers to reach the buttons/knobs. But Subal could do a better job.

The Dome port cover? LOL! You're right.

That switch issue drove me nuts until I figured out why the autofocus wouldn't work. I was bumping it when disengaging from manual to auto focus.

I could live with all the above problems if the Shutter speed knob worked proplerly.

Rand

GS Viewfinder did take a few dives to get used to. I don't have any more problem with lining up the line of sight anymore.
I just got locally made neoprene cover so I never tried Subal cover

I have similar problem with MSC switch but kind of got use to that as well.

I would prefer a bigger handle but Subal one was ok, especially with the strap.

All my knobs seem to work fine so far

The rubber bit helped a bit. I tried the first couple of dives without it and I found that with the rubber thingy, it helps to line up the line of sight pretty well and I was a bit less paranoid about banging the viewfinder on my prescription lenses mask

It's actually an eye cup and should be in a small zip lock bag that was included with your housing. Most of our customer's call after receiving their housing and ask what the "rubber thing" is. I normally put this bag in with your grease, hex wrenches and spare o-rings. But Fred setup your housing so I'm not sure how he packaged things.

I also agree with Ryan and others that you may prefer the ULCS handles. Let me know if you'd like to purchase them.

and on top of that now Subal is getting more expensive than seacam !

that s why i ve switched and finally ordered a complete Seacam setup (sorry for sealux but they were too long to give me a precise price and date of disponibility)